Sir Keir Starmer has insisted a key defence funding plan “will provide the resources our military needs to keep us safe”, after John Healey resigned as defence secretary, accusing the Prime Minister of failing to give enough towards it.
Mr Healey resigned on Thursday afternoon, and said the Prime Minister had been “unable, and the Treasury has been unwilling”, to provide adequate funding for the Defence Investment Plan (Dip). The Dip, originally called for by the Strategic Defence Review almost exactly a year ago, has been long delayed by wrangling over funding.
Responding to the senior Labour figure’s resignation in his own letter, Sir Keir said he agreed that the Government has to “go further” on increasing defence funding. But he added: “The Defence Investment Plan does just that, delivering an unprecedented increase in defence spending in a sustainable way.
“It will provide the resources our military needs to keep us safe and the clarity the British defence industry needs to plan. It will make the big strategic investments we need for the long term and give the certainty which private finance needs to invest. It will allow our armed forces to transform and modernise and back them with the tools they need to change the way we fight — and to deter our enemies.
“And crucially it will ensure the money spent is spent wisely and used to back jobs and growth here in Britain.”
The plan is backed by “the necessary investment”, Sir Keir said, adding that increases in spending underpinning the plan will be “sustainable and fair”. Warning of cuts elsewhere in the Government, the Prime Minister said extra defence spending “will mean significant reallocations of funding from across Government departments”.
Concluding his letter, Sir Keir said: “Taking these decisions is never easy. I am determined to rebuild our country after years of being buffeted by crises. I am sorry that you will not be part of that work going forward.”
Mr Healey said he had received a financial settlement for the Dip on Monday afternoon which “falls well short of what is required”, with extra support coming after 2030 when the “imperative to speed up readiness to fight is in the first two years”. He said: “After explaining to you that I would not be able to accept a Dip settlement that does not give our forces the resources they need, I am now left with no other option than to submit my resignation as your defence secretary.”
Sources said the Government had wanted to publish the Dip on Thursday, but with a £13.5 billion uplift that military chiefs said would not be enough to fund the transformation the armed forces needed. While the Government has committed to spending 3.5% of GDP on defence by 2035, Mr Healey said the plan he was presented with on Monday moved too slowly, with defence spending rising to just 2.68% in 2030 after hitting 2.6% next year.
He added that without a Dip that “meets the moment” he was “forced to make decisions that would reduce the readiness of our forces and increase the risk to personnel on operations, and could make our country less safe”. Sources said the deal offered by the Treasury did not put a date on increasing spending to 3%, and had tried to force the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to plan to only reach that figure in 2034/35.
An ally of Mr Healey said the former defence secretary had been “one of the most loyal Labour men for over 30 years” and had “only ever wanted a successful Labour government”. A Treasury source said the Chancellor would “always do what is right and needed to keep this country safe”, adding she had been “working alongside the PM to deliver billions more to fund the defence investment plan in full”.
A press conference Mr Healey was due to hold with Australian defence minister Richard Marles on a Portsmouth naval base on Thursday afternoon was cancelled at the last minute. Mr Healey is the fourth Cabinet minister to leave Sir Keir’s Government since coming to power and the second to resign over policy differences after Wes Streeting quit as health secretary last month amid the fallout from Labour’s local election losses. He is understood to have asked all other defence ministers to remain in their posts.
